Breastfeeding Initiation

Timely initiation of breastfeeding is important for newborn survival, infection prevention, thermoregulation, bonding, and establishing exclusive breastfeeding. Timely initiation of breastfeeding means immediate skin-to-skin contact after delivery and breastfeeding within the first hour of life. Breastfeeding initiation estimates showed extreme heterogeneity across studies. Publication bias was detected for the breastfeeding initiation outcome. Sensitivity analysis excluding two outlier studies increased the pooled initiation estimate to 87%. Both individual and community-level factors influence timely initiation of breastfeeding in Tanzania. The study examined individual and community-level predictors of timely initiation of breastfeeding among women in Tanzania.